7
$\begingroup$

Is it courteous to reward bounties or accept certain answers even when you don't feel any of the answers deserved the acceptance or bounties?

I've found myself in the situation in the past, and I decided to just accept the answer(s) provided.

Is this a courteous thing to do? Or would it be better to just leave the question with no accepted answer because you simply do not feel the answers are good enough?

$\endgroup$
10
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ This conundrum is just a reflection of the fact that the bounty system, as implemented, is quite at odds with the way problem solving works —in out discipline, at least. Who would Hilbert have awarded bounties to if he had posted his list of problems here? $\endgroup$
    – Mariano Suárez-Álvarez
    Jun 8, 2013 at 19:17
  • 5
    $\begingroup$ If an answerer cooperates, you can hand out the bounty for them to reassign it to the question. $\endgroup$
    – Michael Greinecker
    Jun 8, 2013 at 19:19
  • 8
    $\begingroup$ You can award the bounty without accepting an answer. $\endgroup$
    – Maesumi
    Jun 8, 2013 at 19:42
  • 9
    $\begingroup$ Seconding Maesumi's comment: accepting an answer that does not solve the problem is misleading to others who will come across the questions/answer later. You can decide to give a bounty just for the effort, but please do not do this with acceptances. $\endgroup$
    – ˈjuː.zɚ79365
    Jun 9, 2013 at 13:45
  • $\begingroup$ Ah shoot, it's too late now...I was once told that it was rude to not accept answer. I think it was when the "acceptance %" was still in use. $\endgroup$
    – Lemon
    Jun 10, 2013 at 5:05
  • 7
    $\begingroup$ @sidht: nothing stops you from unaccepting the answer... $\endgroup$
    – Willie Wong
    Jun 10, 2013 at 8:40
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ I think 6 months ago it mattered to the point where people would even answer questions. $\endgroup$
    – Lemon
    Jun 13, 2013 at 5:55
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ I believe is was Leibniz who said, "In doing mathematics I serve a higher power, my reputation on math.stackexchange.com" $\endgroup$
    – Zackkenyon
    Jun 22, 2013 at 2:37
  • $\begingroup$ Actually just out of curiosity, is one allowed to ask the question again after a long period of time and one doesn't feel like throwing away anymore of his reputation? $\endgroup$
    – Lemon
    Jul 1, 2013 at 3:17
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ If you ask a question that has already been asked and answered, it may (and should) be closed as a duplicate. $\endgroup$
    – Gerry Myerson
    Jul 1, 2013 at 11:10

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2
$\begingroup$

I think this is a case of "do it if you feel like but don't do it much". Doing it much pulls the MSE-experience into a direction away from the math content towards some social and individual feeling; and no doubt that shall increase the number of "talky-talky" "questions" and possibly a "business" with bounty points. On the other hands - for MSE being a nice place we should remember we are human beings and a prise of friendlyness, courteosy and cordiality is very healthy for an otherwise creative and constructive clima.
So my proposal: do it if you really feel so, because of some more than average sympathy, but don't do it too often. And if you see, that it happens already in other cases, then do it even less. But at least you are (in my personal view) welcome to express your behave(your intent in a short comment.

$\endgroup$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .